Quote:
Originally Posted by jammies
I want extreme punitive measures against those who defy the law for their personal gain under the cloak of "sharp business practice". I want intellectual property laws which are slanted towards encouraging creativity rather than rewarding the proprietors of content whose originators are long dead, or whose "property" is nothing but words about an obvious process. I want sustained governmental pressure against regimes like China's that care nothing for human rights, regardless of what that might do to trade with such regimes. I want the end of the apartheid-like system of reserves for Natives. I want unrestricted freedom of speech. I want privacy rights for the individual to trump the right of corporations to retain, obtain, and analyze personal data. I want the legal system to be impartial and not about who can afford the best lawyer. And that's just the start.
There's many, many things that I want. Getting together with people that also want things, whether they be sensible things as I see them - or not - is a worthwhile thing even if all it does is signal that people are discontent and are starting to care enough about being discontented to organize. I don't deny that we live in a place that the rest of the world envies, but it didn't get that way by listening to those who felt that the status quo was just fine as it was, and it won't stay that way by sitting around grumbling at those ungrateful kids who just don't know when they've got it good.
Seriously, listen to yourselves. The bulk of you sound just like any other group of conservative elders who moan and gripe that "in my day, a little elbow grease and a chipper attitude was enough to solve any problem, by Gad!" It's easy to sit back and be cynical and to tell yourself that human nature is unchangeable, but not at all as easy to look at yourself and wonder if it's just you that is now impervious to change.
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This one makes me raise my eyebrows. It's not that I don't think the legal system is biased, the evidence certainly tends that way, but this idea that having the best lawyer is something to be done away with confuses me. What's wrong with winning a lawsuit because you have the best lawyer? Hiring the best lawyer doesn't change the law, all it does is give you someone (or many someone's in most cases) that are able to find angles and arguments to best fit your problem within the confines of the law. It's no different than signing a great PP QB D-man, it doesn't grant you another goal a game, it simply gives you a weapon to operate more effectively within the rules of the game.
I'm a strong supporter of increased funding for public defenders on the criminal side, and increased access to strong pro bono representation on the civil side (although that's really up to the legal industry itself, and in general increased pro bono work has become a real focus), but that doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with winning a case because you have a brilliant mind that comes with a $1200/hr bill.